Christmas -- We're almost there

All the attention today is on a large tree placed in our chapel.  As you can see from the photo the lights are half way up the tree but it's a big tree and they have a long way to go  Somehow that feels like a symbol for me today and perhaps for you as well.  As a nation I think we're almost there but we have a ways to go.  I have sat several times this week to do a blog entry and always the same sad feeling comes to my heart--how to find joyful words a midst the sadness of Newtown, CT.  With all of you, we, at the Spiritual Center, still feel the ache of the tragedy of last Friday.  Even in attending the Nutcracker Suite at Neumann University, many commented that the children dancing brought to mind the innocence of the children killed and terrified last Friday morning.  Christmas is a time filled with the innocence and joy of children and the goodness and excitement that the season brings to everyone.  Where to go with the pain is still a struggle for many..

Eugene C. Kennedy has an editorial and here is a link to the article:  The Sacramental Revelation of Newtown, Conn. It freed something within me and changed my focus a bit.  To rehearse the tragedy over and over isn't helpful and nothing can take away the loss for those families but the families in Newtown have taught us a great deal.  This Christmas perhaps the gift is to see the goodness of the ordinary everyday people of Newtown and the manner in which they enflesh the love of God.  This is the Incarnation for us this Christmas.  Newtown is in some way the Bethlehem of today.  Although the focus is on the funerals of small children and their teachers the real story is in the  unbelievable resilience of a community coming together to support one another.  They are a simple people filled with such goodness and deep faith; they are a community of strength and deep love.  They have incarnated our God who is the love alive within and among us.  We have been inspired by their stories of strength and resolve and sacrifice.   I suppose we had a similar example in the victims of the super storm Sandy.  Ordinary people who go on day by day in the face of tragedy can truly help us refocus our values so that the true meaning of Christmas is alive within us.

The staff of the Franciscan Spiritual Center thank each of you for the way you incarnate God's love each day.  We thank you for your love and support and wish you blessings during this Christmas time and throughout the 2013 year.  We also unite with people of all faiths who in this movement of Birth 2012 invite us to three days of love -- Birth 2012 - Three days of love.  Christmas is about a child who taught us love and who grew day by day like all  children.  In our Christmas readings we often hear proclaimed Isaiah 11:6 (the wolf shall dwell with the lamb...and a little child will lead them).  Perhaps the children who lost their lives in Newtown will lead us to a more civilized nation where guns are less valued, assault weapons are banned, and peaceful conflict resolution replaces violence.  Let the little children lead us.  This Christmas may all children be safe, be loved, and be surprised by the goodness of life and love..